Thai police arrest brothers sought on UK drug charges

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai police have arrested two brothers from Britain wanted on drug trafficking charges in their homeland. Police said Joseph Michael Mulhare and Gregory Michael Mulhare were arrested Tuesday after the British embassy…

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai police have arrested two brothers from Britain wanted on drug trafficking charges in their homeland.

Police said Joseph Michael Mulhare and Gregory Michael Mulhare were arrested Tuesday after the British embassy informed Thai police that an Interpol blue notice — seeking information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime — had been issued for them.

The brothers are wanted in the United Kingdom for allegedly selling cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines and marijuana, police said in a statement.

It said Japanese police tracked the two down on Nov. 17 in a hotel in the resort town of Pattaya, 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Bangkok, a popular destination for Western underworld figures.

Apparently aware they were under surveillance, the brothers switched hotels and hired a woman to take them by taxi to Bangkok and then to Suvarnabhumi airport. They then returned to Thailand’s eastern seaboard, where police arrested them. Thai TV Channel 7 showed police enter their cheap hotel room and handcuff the men behind their backs.

Police said authorities had revoked the brothers’ visas, a standard practice to allow them to be kept in detention until a decision is made on whether to extradite or expel them.